Museum · Sawston · Cambridgeshire

Challis House

Challis House is a local history museum. You will find it inside Sawston’s built-up area. It is run by Challis Trust.

Where

In Sawston

inside the built-up area

Run by

Challis Trust

the operator on record

Warmest months

May–Sep

highs of 18–23°C

In brief

Museum in Sawston

Inside Sawston

Challis House is inside Sawston’s built-up area, with 17 more places to visit within 5 km. Towns near it ↓

Written from OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, the ONS built-up areas and Met Office 1991–2020 averages.

When to go

Month by month

Warmest in Sawston are May to September, at 18–23°C.

Jan8° / 2°44 mm

Feb8° / 1°38 mm

Mar11° / 3°34 mm

Apr14° / 4°37 mm

May18° / 7°43 mm

Jun20° / 10°50 mm

Jul23° / 12°54 mm

Aug23° / 12°61 mm

Sep20° / 10°51 mm

Oct15° / 7°62 mm

Nov11° / 4°57 mm

Dec8° / 2°49 mm

Green months are the warmest. Typical afternoon highs and night lows in Sawston, and rain in a month. Met Office HadUK-Grid 1991–2020 averages for Sawston. Opening times change through the year: check before you go. Sawston’s full climate →

About

Challis House

Our list has 63 more places within 15 km; first among them is Fitzwilliam Museum, at 9.3 km.

Type: Museum
Run by: Challis Trust
Town: in Sawston

Facts: Wikidata (CC0) and OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors).

The map

Getting your bearings

Numbered points are the places near Challis House, which is in orange.

Towns near it

Bases near Challis House

In size, Sawston comes first of the 8, with 7,270 people. These are the towns that list it, beginning with its own.

1 · It’s in town

Sawston

7,270 people · 18 places to visit

2 · 1.2 km southwest of it

Whittlesford

1,608 people · 18 places to visit

3 · 2.3 km northwest of it

Great Shelford and Stapleford

6,159 people · 21 places to visit

4 · 2.8 km south of it

Duxford

2,216 people · 18 places to visit

Compare the 8 towns

Town	Where Challis House is	People	Places to visit
Sawston	It’s in town	7,270	18
Whittlesford	1.2 km southwest of it	1,608	18
Great Shelford and Stapleford	2.3 km northwest of it	6,159	21
Duxford	2.8 km south of it	2,216	18
Great Abington	3.3 km east of it	794	4
Little Shelford	3.4 km northwest of it	772	18
Heathfield	3.5 km southwest of it	668	18
Hinxton	3.7 km south of it	330	18

Make a day of it

Make a day of it near Challis House

Around it, within 15 km, lie 63 more, including 3 museums, 2 castles and a garden.

1MuseumMuseumFitzwilliam Museum9.3 km away · 364K visitors a year 2

MuseumIWM Duxford4.2 km away · 401K visitors a year (2019)3

MuseumMuseum of Zoology9.6 km away · 139K visitors a year (2023)4

GardenCambridge University Botanic Garden8.5 km away 5

Historic house · English HeritageAudley End House12 km away 6

CastleCambridge Castle11 km away 7

CastleSaffron Walden Castle12 km away 8

Art galleryKettle's Yard Gallery11 km away

Within 15 km, close and well known first. Numbers match the map.

Questions people have about Challis House

Where is Challis House?

Challis House is in Sawston, Cambridgeshire, inside the town’s built-up area.

What is Challis House?

Museum: local history.

Who runs Challis House?

Challis Trust.

When is the best time to visit Challis House?

May to September are the warmest months in Sawston, with afternoon highs of 18–23°C (Met Office 1991–2020 averages).

What else is there to see near Challis House?

Within 15 km: Fitzwilliam Museum (9.3 km), IWM Duxford (4.2 km), Museum of Zoology (9.6 km) and Cambridge University Botanic Garden (8.5 km).

Places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database Licence) and Wikidata (CC0), placed in the ONS 2022 built-up area (Open Government Licence v3.0). Visitor counts are the latest Wikidata gives, with their year.

Photos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).

Photo credits (7)

IWM Duxford: IxK85, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Museum of Zoology: Magnus Manske, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Cambridge University Botanic Garden: temporalata, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Audley End House: Tilman2007, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Cambridge Castle: Samuel Buck / Nathaniel Buck, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Saffron Walden Castle: Janine Forbes, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Kettle's Yard Gallery: The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.